Review: An evocative mystery set in Japan, Rainbirds is the impressive debut novel from Clarissa Goenawan, an Indonesian-born Singaporean. Part thriller, part coming-of-age tale, Rainbirds takes the reader on a mesmerising journey of self-discovery and love in its different forms.
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Review: Granta’s “Going Back” (issue 111) revolves around memories – of one’s hometown, a former home, an ex-lover or friend, an idea once closely held. Some of the works are fictional while others are autobiographical. In this issue, there are several gems that I could go back time and again to read and not get tired of.
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Review: One suitcase, eight stories – each representing the bizarre events behind a certain item belonging to a Soviet émigré as well as depicting life in the USSR from the 1960s to 1980s.
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In so few words, Andrés Neuman made me laugh, sigh, frown and marvel with the multiple universes that he created in The Things We Don’t Do. The 35 stories are short with a new one appearing every few pages, sometimes even just one. While they all start on a clean slate, the emotional baggage, astute observation, or wry…
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Would you read a book if you’ve already seen the film that was based on it, and vice versa?
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Simple, beautiful prose by Truman Capote, presented in four short stories. While I was impressed with Breakfast at Tiffany’s, A Christmas Memory is my favourite of the lot (even though I found it to be the saddest tale of the lot).
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The Tokyo Zodiac Murders by Soji Shimada is an entertaining and brilliant example of the Honkaku genre in Japanese crime fiction where the mystery is solved using logical reasoning.
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Confessions of a Yakuza offers a brutally vivid and candid insight into the life of a former yakuza boss.
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Kiki de Montparnasse by Catel Muller and Jose-Luis Bocquet is one of the few French books that I’ve read from cover to cover. Spanning more than 400 pages, this graphic novel offers a colourful glimpse into les Années Folles (the Roaring Twenties) in Montparnasse, Paris through the life of Alice Prin. Better known as Kiki de Montparnasse, or simply Kiki, she was the muse…
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Angelina Hue 